Types of businesses City could have
Sitemap ' Types of businesses/city facilities : ' * see also Existing Businesses * see also Shops_and_Locations (list of likely business names) * See also Rapture Economy (Things that once were in Rapture or should have been for it to be 'a City' ) * Accountant and Bookkeeping (how can businesses run without this?) * Antique Shop - lots of antiques brought to Rapture and people eventually sell/trade them * Arms Dealers (who sold arms long before 'the troubles') * Astrologer - (Palm Readers) - Rapture might be a place of Science, but old ways die hard... * Automat Self-service Cafeteria-style Restaurant (hot food in wall of coin operated machines with a kitchen behind all the little dispensing windows). For people on the go. First in US in 1902. * Baker/Bakery - * Bank -- with bank vault busted open * Bar/Saloon/Pub/Club - social joints of all flavors * Barbershop * Baseball teams (saw poster) * Bathysphere Line (several) - early deluxe transport, later consolidated and expanded into the Metro (Rapture Transit Authority). Original point to point companies would have been built where the AE was too big to go and there were sufficient customers. * Bathysphere Rescue and Towing * Beauty Parlor * Beer Garden (in German theme) * Betting Parlor (Sea Slug races were much favored by the clientele) * Book Store - in Raptures earlier days many books would be imported, later with the 'Cut Off' how many books worth reading would have been printed in Rapture? * Bookbinder and Publisher (and likely Vanity Mill too) * Bottle Works (glass products) Glass bottle factory (glass was still used for alot of contained before plastics became common) * Bowling Alley (why haven't we seen Splicers using bowling pins as clubs ?? now we'll have the chance...) * Boxing ring (ie- Mc Donagh's from DLC) * Botanical Garden with research labs Rapture Agriculture Department * Breweries (term 'micro' didn't exist yet) * Brick and Tile Works * Butcher * Camera Shop (sales and repairs) * Candlestickmaker - bees wax, etc.. Scented to cover some of Raptures fishy and mildew smells somewhat. * Candy Shop - several in different quality ranges and specialties like chocolate. * Catering Service * Cement Plant - basic construction and repair material * Chemical Plant (all kinds) * Chicken Factory (meat and eggs ) with corresponding grain production (and fish meal additives) - can you get chickens to eat kelp?? * Children's Playground (Daycare Center ??) * City Council Complex - City council chambers original (unpretentious to match Ryans dislike of big government, but a 'City' requires some operating infrastructure/organization * City Constables HQ - was run by Sullivan originally. Likely there were numerous local 'stations' * City Coroners Office - probably got very busy with all this ADAM business * City Court of Law - again stupid to think there would be no such thing * City Jail - have to have someplace to dump/hold miscreants * City Registrar - contrary to idiotic portrayals ('no laws' and such) you cannot run a city sized society without some paperwork/arbitration mechanisms * Clock shop (importance of Time in Rapture/Modern Society) * Club - old style private Men or Women's club with Membership/Gymnasium/Library/Pool/Meeting Rooms * Cold Storage * College - vocational/technical/business many were not large operations so would be suitable to Rapture's population * Correspondence School - for learning in free time - wide range of subjects * Cosmetic Shop/Company * Costume Shop - where do you think all those masks came from * Court of Law (where disputes are settles and laws applied) * Curry Palace -- Indian style food (since more than a few Brits in Rapture) * Dairy Farm(s) - but not enough for everyone because of the cost to maintain cows (why else would you need Calci-O ??) * Dance Studio (some of Sander Cohen's plaster covered lackeys mustve gone there, to learn the cha-cha) * Dentist and orthodontists * Department Store * Doctors Office -- back then doctors also still made 'housecalls' * Dog and Cat Hospital - pets were mentioned quite a bit * Donuts - * Drug Store (includes general goods/notions, and three whole aisles of ADAM products and accessories) * Dry Cleaner * Farm - all different kinds including treefarms * Farmers Markets (more local than one central one) * Fish and Chips - fish obviously but potatoes were a staple (and continued to be all thru the Chaos) * Flour Mill * Foundry and metal working * Freight Delivery/Shipping Company * Fuel Depot and Stations * Gaming Arcade - I added one at Ryan Amusements (which needed more things to get people to want to go there) Pinball machines, maybe some of the new 'computer games', various old style game machines. * Garden Supply - we hardly saw it but people in Rapture could have private gardens * Glass Blower - upscale decorations (and not so upscale - ever hear of "Depression Glass" ?? * Grand Observatory ??? What would they be looking at ??? Planetarium with fake stars and sky .... might be better. * Green Grocer - fresh produce - many small local stores as well as larger operations * Grocery Store(s) -- once many small such stores were common in local areas for convenience * Gymnasium (used by the sports teams and exercise inclined) * Hair Salon - even with 'Natural Blond ADAM Tonic the hair still needs styling... * Hamburger Joint - fastfood.... lots of these started in 40s/50s * Hardware Store - for all the do-it-yourself-ers and craftsmen * Hobbyshop - not just things like model trains/airplanes but all kinds of doodads/tools/materials for kitchen table inventors * Hooka Parlour * Hospital - real one, not one for elective surgery like in Medical Center * Housewares Store * Ice Cream Maker (Kelp was actually used Real World as ingredients for some Ice Cream) * Ice Cream Parlor - there are kids in Rapture and kids need places to hang out * Icemaker - not everyone has a refrigerator (or a big enuf one) * Industrial park (Industria) * Instrument maker (Music) * Instrument Maker (Mechanical Device and Specialized Tools)) * Janitorial Service * Job Placement Service * Laundromat (coin operated machines) * Laundry (shop) * Lawyers Office - Sorry No Laws was a stupid impossible idea * you still have courts and specialists who understand the laws * Learning Center (Adult Education?) * Libraries (entertainment/research/commercial/educational uses) * Locksmith and Safe maker - now with electronic/genetic locks as well as the old mechanicals * Martial Arts Studio - Judo, Karate etc... (they taught GIs this stuff in WW2...) * Massage Parlor - real and the 'special' kind * Medical - all kinds of specialists * Members-Only Clubs - all kinds - even a Model Railroad Club * Metal Working and Machining Shop * Millinery design and manufacture of hats * Mining and Prospecting Supplies * Moviehouse (smaller than a theater, more like the old nickelodions) * Newspaper/Magazine publisher Printers/Newsstands/etc... * Old Age/Retirement Home * Opera House ??? to high-brow ??? too limited on performers (maybe a planned one that was never finished...). Amateur group may put some on at various theaters, and dearth of shows in Rapture may give them an audience. * Optometrist (Eagle Eye Plasmid put out of business) * Oxygen Generation Plant * Paint Company * Papermaker * Parks - restful places, picnics etc... ** Central Park ? (what a mess that must have to be cleaned up) ** Iris's park (Iris is a minor Greek goddess of the rainbow - and guess what they have a simulated rainbow there...) * Pastry Shop * Pharmaceutical Maker (still plenty of other types ADAM stuff just didn't work for) - Headache and Hangover medicines are mainstays * Photo Processor and Studio - shutterbugs and I suppose wannabe 'artistes' (sorry no digital) * Photographic Supply Manufacturer * Pipe manufacturer metal/ceramic/cement * Police HQ (including for Private Police forces) * Printer * Printing plant for newspapers * Prison/Jail/Insane Asylum - just because its New Rapture doesnt mean that the need for such facilities have disappeared * Private Police/Guard/Security Service * Public Broadcasting (except no tax dollars to fund it - endless Telethons, ego driven 'sponsors' ... Yay) * Quarry (stone work and/or aggregate for concrete) nice igneous rocks (cost arm and leg and torso to import from surface...) * Racetrack - out in ocean (subs, dolphin races?) or inside (Flybot racing ??) with betting of course * Radio Station/Studio, (place to run shows also facilities to make advertisements) * Radio Station orig * Railroad - AE in the City was more like a subway system, but outside functioned like a railroad * Real Estate Agency - some people are on their way up and others on their way down. Either way properties/residences are bought and sold. * Real Estate Developer (and Builder) * Refinery (petro-chemical) unfortunately oil was one of the difficult raw materials to gather after the City's isolation (nearest undersea sources are at least 500 miles away). * Roller Rink * Roto-Rooter Service (cleaning/unclogging drains) * Sam Clams Disco * Sawmill (wood processing) * Sea Landscaping - for those popular 'out the window' displays * Soda Fountain - popular venue for the younger Citizens * Sport Complex, Gymnasium center * Sports Equipment shop * Stadium - Rapture Stadium * Stationary Store * Storage Warehouse * Super Market (ruins of one) first was 1916 and became popular in the 20s so appropriate for Rapture - shopping carts turned into Splicer death-mobiles ... * Swimming Pool area * Tarot Reader and Mystic Parlor - Madam Blatovasky * Tattoo Shop * Taxis - subs on call (versus Limo Service ??) * Television Station, original. There were many TV stations (just look at dials on the TV in the MP Apartment). Technology may have made it alot easier (inexpensive) to have more that 3 national stations to divvy up the advertising dollars.. TV in RApture was effectively 'Cable' * Tennis courts (seen the poster) -- something interesting propelled by the ball firing machines * Textile factory (cloth from whatever fibers.. organic and synthetics) * Theater (more small local/specialized ones - Films etc..) * Tile and ceramics maker - lots of tileware is used in Art Deco * Tobacco Shop - lots of options. Some of the synthetics got pretty good (electro-Cigarettes were all the rage at one time) * Toy/Hobby store. * Travel Agency - believe it or not there ARE places to 'get away to' and even 'on-the-go' people of Rapture need vacations. * Trolley Company - earlier local trolley lines - later consolidated into the Metro * Typesetting and Printing. * Typewriter/printer ink/ribbons * Underground Church -- ruins (real one, not lambs phony shit) * University - Rapture is a long term project, One third of the population is Children. Interesting might be what effect on 'Learning' the ADAM products might have. * Veterinarian (for all the various animals in Rapture) * Vocational School - not everyone in Rapture was a Rocket Scientist * Warehouse - place to store stuff til needed * Watch and Clock shop -- Time is money and it waits for no man.... * Water filtering plant (maybe trendy 'bottled' water or a spring of 'carbonated water') * --- Desalination plant (Hephaestus area) * --- Recycling plant (maybe not for human consumption) * Wax Museum - didn't I already mention... (more parasite stuff likely and heroes who fought them) * Window squeegee manufacturing (used for cleaning windows...) and might as well also make scrapers for outside glass surface too (and maybe chemical applications like 'sheeting' agents or herbicide to deter algae growth) * Welders Supply - lots of esoteric welding (is Ryanium weldable ??) * Women's Hair Salon (upscale from 'beauty parlor) --- --- --- Automat.jpg Food-ad.jpg|Food should be convenient --- --- --- Wax Museum Planned for Ryan Amusements (Delayed by the civil disturbances ...) : Madam Frasseau's ?? ('frass' is insect excrement in pressed wine) Rapture type Heroes... Archimedes, Edison. Da Vinci, Carnegie, etc... (actually Carnegie might not be there because of his Philantrophy ??) Famous Parasites ... (and the 'Diseased ones') FDR, Stalin, Wilson, Mao Cartoon Characters for the kids : * Squirmy the Sea Slug, Ryan the Lion, and other popular children cartoon characters ... No doubt - a recreation of the scene of Bolsheviks/Communists killing Ryan's relatives before his eyes as a child will be featured. 'May First' was remade into "Victims of Communism" day in Rapture. Tableau Of The Huge Pile of Money spent on 'welfare', with politician/taxman picking the pocket of the Working Man handing it to a lazy fool. "No Tax Day" April 15th Famous Rapture people - all your favorites : Rapture's Best and Brightest scene recreation of the 'Best and Brightest' ... * Ryan, of course * Sander Cohen would insist... Look!! Isn't that Sander Cohen BEFORE he became a Homicidal Maniac ??? * Tenenbaum * Suchong * Steinman The Builders - "AE" Prentice Mills, Kincade Fontaine would PAY to have his effigy there Too bad Splicers later started melting the figures down to make candles. Half of the ones that had been on display were already gone before a collapse blocked further erosion (and remaining ones had chunks removed of them). --- --- --- TOURISM - Tourist Destinations In (Old) Rapture : * Top of Point Prometheus, highest building in Rapture ... that pointy tall one you see off in distance in BS1. (ignore the buildings beyond it in view, they are shown the same out all 4 sides of the windows ...). The top floor is within 100 feet of surface, but it is on the leeward side of the bulk of Mt. Ryan so is not imperiled by icebergs. * Hephaestus (all that impressive but not overly efficient machinery, build for show more than anything else) and the pretty Bioluminescent 'volcanoes' in the adjacent sea area. Fizzy red soda is sold in the giftshop. * The Abyss Overlook - the glowing depths - end-of-the-line on the AE 'Short Line' (is not the Persephone facilities which are adjacent to Fontaine Futuristics). The 'elevator' that descends deep into the 'Terrrrrrible Depths...' with perfect safety (8 inch solid steel walled comfort). * Garden of the Gods - Spectacular Private Sealife Bioluminescence Exhibit with suites of room each with a 'perfect' view. * Stadium for weekend and special baseball/football/track/rally/fireworks events. * A planned Cretaceous Park (with ADAM regenerated dinosaurs (regressed chicken genomes)) was proposed but never built. * The Snow Fields (caverns and tunnels with artificial snow) including ski-slopes (the tunnel boring machines were idle by that time). Snow machines and just don't turn the heat on in the place ... * Ryan Amusements - with a few more attractions than only the ones we saw in BS2. Various companies sponsoring the 'rides' just like Disneyland ... ex* Rapture Sings, brought to you by Nico-Time ... Mr Fish's Jamboree, by Fontaine Fisheries, Pirates of the Bureaucracies, sponsored by Sinclair Spirits. * Grand Carnival. Open on weekends (and Holidays - John Stuart Mills Birthday, Ayn Rand Day, etc..) with many of the classic carnival entertainments (Heh, what point going here later when all of Rapture was turned into a 'freakshow' and a 'shooting gallery'???). * Forest Turf Cemetery - a vast underground cavern network for 'eternal rest'. Varieties of impressive monuments (a 'prestige' thing) and real lawn grass. A popular picnicking spot. The Elysian Fields and The Catacombs .... * The Sub Races - the raceway located away from the city (so the crashes dont take out any buildings). Home of the Rapture 500.... * The 'Wading Pools' with interesting sealife that can be examine 'up close' (a typical rocky seashore park type attraction). Probably would be an adjunct to 'The Aquarium', though an entrepreneur might have some kind of 'Sea World' with the performing Dolphins and such (Heh, having them swimming around in the usual 'big pool' doing somersaults inside, when there is all that water outside.... What must the dolphins think ??) * Mr Sun's Beach Resort : ** Simulated beach with real transplanted palm trees ** Simulated ocean waves ** Warm tropical climate with Simulated Sun ** Only a short hop from the Adonis Resort * Memorial Museum (seen in MP) various static aquatic displays (not an Aquarium) and other stuff. * Emerald Caves - green volcanic glass or somesuch pretty light effects (do a boat thingee like the famous Blue Grotto -- except its Green) * Ambrosia Peak - observation deck looking at something for some reason. Closed down after the Emerald Caves offered something better to look at. * Of course many of these places fell into disuse, disrepair and ruin and likely contain interesting environs for the Citizen Explorer. --- --- --- Gun Stores : Every other Splicer has a gun. But we saw no gun store(s) in our traversal of Rapture (we only saw an external sign in BS1 advertising 'guns'). Basic pistols and such might be sold at any grocery store like they WERE in that era (Did we see even one of those ??) Of course, having a large selection of guns/ammo free for the taking by the Player would have messed up the BS1/BS2 game weapon advancement ramps. That problem could be sidestepped, as by the Chaos times any such store would be shown completely emptied/ransacked. In more stable sections of Rapture (which you DID NOT go through in-game) they might still have offerings of weapons/ammo (they sold ammo out of Vending Machines after all), and likely including more locally/recently/crudely produced and homebrewed weapon equipment/ammo. --- --- --- Company (Business) "Elgin Kitchens" ''' (Mythological-style naming from Elgin Marbles taken from the Parthenon) With 10000+ households in Rapture and redos/upgrades after almost 15 years, there is probably enough kitchen counter business to keep a small firm busy (note - assembling, cabinetry, etc.. NOT making ALL the appliances). Igneous Volcanic rock a local material (cut and polished). Integrated/coordinated sinkware and other useful appliances. Likely also made/sold some integrated sink-toilet-shower units suitable for small apartments. (Note - unitized bathroom and kitchen units (in stainless steel) was a mass production method used for grouped housing units.) - "Parthenon" might also be another name for a company/business (It was a Temple on the Acropolis in Athens, but also an architectural masterpiece - and also almost bankrupted the Athenian government). So would lose the religious aspect and more the Democracy symbolism. --- --- --- '''Rapture Transit Electric Buffet : A real world idea/theme from the 'Transit Age' (pre Art Deco even). Such a place would be located off a central Tram Station - like at Welcome Center (need a replacement name for that cluster), which had 6 Tram lines converge on it (which must've been one of the adjacent building of my revised/amended level map - AND to also connect into several AE lines, and a large bathysphere hub). --- --- --- Planetarium : Someone brought a Planetarium projector to Rapture and Ryan actually subsidized the creation of a dome Planetarium at the University for public showings and to school children -- not so much as a source of wonder, but more as one that is typically boring, so as counter any endearment of the audience to the night sky of the Surface. Various experiment art showing were also given in the dome theater no doubt assisted at times by the availability of hallucinogens. Artsy Fartsy stuff using a wrap around viewing screen - that sounds promising for some outside-of-the-envelope 'artiste'. Note - I added a Planetarium to the Rapture Memorial Museum Complex Proving_Grounds --- --- --- Storage - Rich people own lots of stuff and often don't have it all in-use/displayed in their homes. So in many real world cities there are Storage Companies which rent space to store items, funiture and such. Many times significant security was provided adaquate for expensive items. Rapture had plenty of 'rich' people, so there should be a few such storage business existing. Many other people with businesses would also have brought masses of material, tools and 'stock' required to sustain their craft, potentially for decades. --- --- --- Odd Business Names: A Really Big Shoe -- E Sullivan Footware Esq. --- --- --- --- --- TOURISM Chernobyl Water : "Abyss Water" - brand on a souvenir bottle - from the Abyss Overlook tourist locale - with its (sort-of) distinctive glowey Bioluminescent coloring gimmick (one bar put glowing icecubes in its drinks...). Good gig until Bioluminescence caught on being used for many other things/products. You CAN have Tourism in such a small place, Juts have to provide destinations which are a departure from the Daily Rat Race. --- Heart of Glass : A popular 'scenic' tourist service the Atlantic Express had was its 'Glass Cars', special Traincars which had large sections of the hull made out of clear Ryanium 'glass' which gave the passengers (in deluxe accommodations) an incredible view of the 'Passage thru the Deep'. Special Floodlights were included to help illuminate certain stretches of terrain when the cars made a close passage. This special service was discontinued when the AE went bankrupt. The original old (Mk1) style 'vista-dome' car is still to be found under a pile of junk in AE Depot. --- --- --- Another Business Opportunity (an Industry to Start) - Paint : The whole City will need new paint once the leaks and Wood Rot is cleaned up (walls replaced, etc..). * Lime/Chalk for white (titanium might be a bit hard to get ahold of) * Various silts/clays for greys and earth colors * Numerous minerals are useful for less plain colors. * Old formula of linseed oil ... * Zinc based paint would be needed to redo the lapsed protective paint on countless pipes. * Old Stockpiles may still exist somewhere, but the City needs to look civilized now. * Good Waterproof Paint would he in high demand. --- --- --- VITAMINS : Your Vita-ABCs brought to you by Calci-O ''' : Endorsed by the Rapture Public Schools - Vitamins for Rapture's future Geniuses Of course, there's the problem with the Additives which usually make such 'healthy' things taste so awful (therefore pills and capsules). Should Ryan have started adding vitamin supplements to the ADAM Plasmids to try to stabilize his newly calmed-down Pheromone Controlled Splicer Citizens ??????? Ryan: "Look how sickly they all look. We need to get on improving their Health right away !!" --- --- --- . . . . . . . . A consumed product necessary in the modern world. With Kelp it can be 'Renewable'. "When the toilet paper runs out, civilization ends." - Augustus Sinclair Probably NOT "worth its weight in Gold", but far better than pages from Sofia Lamb's books... --- --- --- '''Tupperware - Rapture, the Great Revolution : Fontaine and Tenenbaum could NOT have created their ADAM Breakthrough without the magic of Tupperware.... (Or so the Rapture Tupperware advertisements say). Plastic Fabrication using technologies developed during (molding 1942) and after WW2 (public product 1948). --- --- --- Ahab's Whale Meat - Beef of the Sea ... --- --- --- Cape Horn - Hydraulic Power Station (Example City Addition) : This would be a business venture competing with the Hephaestus Geothermal power generation. There would be a location near Rapture where prevailing ocean currents are channeled up a ravine in the contours of the submerged volcano (Mt Ryan), and which consistently flows extra fast. Water Turbines would be installed to take advantage of that constant flow. Construction would be a bit tricky with the strong currents and turbulance, and maintenance expenses would be comparable to the Geothermal generating systems. The system likely fell into disrepair during the disruptions of the terrorist civil war and were eventually shutdown. A Player Mission could be to a similar operation maintained by one of the surviving Outer Rapture communities (who are running out of replacement parts - possible mission to trade with them)?? An Idea like this would be proposed in the Player Creation Community, calling for a number of Players to compose the whole set of game Assets for such a new Location -- With its terrain, mechanisms, props, story, NPC personalities associated with it, an the possible Quests/Missions that would make use of it, etc... Over time it would be designed, Pieced together, Tested and Added to the Server World as a new destination for Players to interact with. --- --- --- --- --- Business Example #1 - Ketchup for the Masses : Standardized game mechanims (research, comodity handling, (food) fabrication process, sales interactions, consumer consumption interactions) to be employed with customized details (In-Game tools available to create the various custom Assets using predefine 'Template' interactions). A consumable product with HIGH UTILITY to the Population ("Everything goes better with Ketchup") Materials : * Tomatoes are not that hard to grow in small amounts (on window-sill gardens) and are good hydroponic candidates for mass production. * Vinegar and salt are common (we have vineyards (cheap wine vinegar) and an ocean full of seasalt) * Sugar may be needed (sugar beets likely more workable than sugarcane, corn sugars also possible/probable) * Coloring ?? If the tomatoes are a bit anemic ?? Red dyes which aren't too toxic are available. * Filler (don't want it too thin) -- corn starch, tomatoe pulp, fiber from kelp ??? Production Facilities - 'Kitchen' for initial operations 'runs', Scale-up production with added equipment later (mass fabrication Formulas, of many degrees/increments/upgrades). NPC employees with required Skills. R&D - May need to experiment/test (R&D) with Formulas to get good balance (does anyone in Rapture remember what Ketchup tasted like ??? Old Family Recipes might not work with adjusted ingredients.) Research to see what turns up - finding old recipes would be good. Samples found in the Ruins.... Taste tests (for this product at least). Bottle of 10 year old ketchup ?? Smugglers still exist to get some from the Surface (at a price and risk...) Packaging - bottles of right shape, though jars could be initially used if no other option (some customers like restaurants/cafeterias will buy BULK in cans) Have a deal with customers to buy back/return container empties, with deposits, etc... Product Labeling - hand labeling for initial runs, Printed when expansion is past 'kitchen' production stage. Sales - many restaurants will want a decent ketchup to cover up the shortcomings of their food. Advertising - what would Rapture (even New Rapture) be without product advertising? Processing - stock material accumulation, mixing, boiling, packaging/sealing, warehousing product, sales & distribution(+transport) Ketchup Works Workers : * Mixer (skilled to match required taste/ proportions / compensations) * Cook * Stock/material handler * Packager Expansion On Success - Cut out the Middleman : * Warehousing space * Bulk customer packaging (including cans) * Setup/organize (Player's) self-farming for many of the ingredients ** Tomatoes - Hydroponic works well ** Vineyard takes longer, vinegar making from bulk grapes is possible?? Corn and other ethanol sources ** Spices, various flavoring elements bought or self-grown can also be used. * Business Deals for bulk production of glass containers * Bulk Salt Making ** Sea water - boil it (expand heating pipes from utilities) ** Purify it (filtering crap out of seawater - bake it) ** Pick out 'obvious' stuff from dried salt (coloring not critical as it is going into a mix) * Large-scale Production ** Bottle works - warranted only if business grows really big (separate fabrication production ) ** Centralized warehouse/distribution ** Long term production contracts (pre-orders) with NPCs or Players * Secondary products (secondary related businesses) ** Fresh tomatoes (raw produce for retail sale) ** Tomato paste/sauce (spaghetti !!!) ** Special formula variations (steak sauce, shrimp sauce, chili based flavors) ** Excess product of ingredient productions ** Bottle making, extended for sale to other companies/products --- Q : How would the above Example in-game production process simplify and break down for the Player ??? ' The Formula Interface would have nice iconic tokens for objects involved (materials/skills/tools/machines). Formulas for basic/mass scale of production would be defined. Production runs in batches (phased Formula production process) -- Prefer drag-n-drop interfaces and cached interface configurations (stored/reuseable patterns) to reduce tedious duplication of interface activity. Inventory icon and visible 3D objects (including variants of containers) Ketchup is classified as a 'semi-fluid' (and thus 'dividable'), 'semi-luxury', 'food-accessory', 'edible' 'consumable' and as a 'positive-quality-modifier'. Flavor itself is arbitrary and 'ketchup-like' becomes a template for similar products. Similar production processes could be used to manufacture bullets, or glues for leak repairs (yum). --- '''Q : How does such a product fit into the New Rapture City Economy and actions of the Citizens (Players and NPCs) ? ' Produced Items have a 'standard-of-living' Quality aspect that guides general NPC object/item buying behaviors ( and Businesses who purchase items for their customer's related use --- a 'Five Star' Restaurant doesn't have cheap disgusting Ketchup). In-Game Product Development Process (Player decides to work on defining a product to produce in New Rapture) : * Requirement of Existing basic definitions/details/attributes (the Asset Creation Community created set of patterns previously for objects LIKE this one) there may be a stepwise (more standardized) quality improvement ramp system. Options would exist to customize the products features (to make it different somehow from similar items...) * Research/experimentation effort In-Game (activities) by Player to establish/enable a Custom Formula (the research difficulty for this type of item is defined by a human designer initially (higher quality and desirability as a consumer items takes more research and effort (and sometimes luck)...). * Competing products can exist at different quality levels and have minor (cosmetic) variations. 'Quality' may often have to be 'by definition' (attributes) than by apparent In-Game visible appearance (how do you really make an inventory Icon obviously represent a better quality Ketchup ???..... ditto for a 3D visible object ?). The Player could create a 'branding' which will have the product linked to an advertising name/theme/slogan/asset. Marketing of the product would have ads placeable in various In-Game media (Player pays for it, expecting it to bring customers) and game mechanics would have that affect NPC's buying habits. The advertising has a simulated effect on NPCs (Players can make of them what they will...) --- The standard In-Game semi-automatic business processing (Templates for Players's NPCs carrying on when assigned the task). Player should NOT have to deal with excessive complexity/tedious details to operate a business once they are setup. : * Obtaining required supplies (likely from other businesses/clearinghouse) -- this should be straight-forward (no cancellations caused by flakey Players or easily monopolization). * Manufacturing follows the Formula (NPCs do repetitions). Selling product onwards to be facilitated by mechanism for persistant 'contracts'/'deals' to continue automatic purchase or consignments. (many will be NPCs in the simulated market). * A Business Status Interface shows the player what is happening with their ongoing production, what any problems are, potentials for improvements, inventories, past history, etc... Player need not interact for it to continue, BUT a player's control interactions can bring better business performance and efficiency (and profits). * Many of the NPC businesses will operate on automatic like this, so the mechanism to run the Player's business 'hands-off' will largely be there. This is all also a simplified economy system, so it wont be "Rocket Science" to program the game mechanisms for it. --- This Ketchup Business example actually should be something Pre-Created in the game to be the example Template for the whole in-game idea and to offer the Emplayment and some Missions from the start of the MMORPG Game. Its a logical 'need' for New Rapture. --- --- --- --- --- ''' 'Prometheus Brand' Charcoal Brickets : Prometheus (Mythical being who 'brought Fire to Mankind') made from real wood (lesser brands are made from pressed seaweed). Someone figured out how to farm mesquite adequately (or something close to it) to bring out that classic BBQ flavor. --- --- --- Razor Blade Manufacturing (and/or Resharpening) : Well Justified in Pre-Chaos Rapture. * Side effect of the Splicing was Splicers not growing beards apparently, as the razor blades in Rapture ran out after a while (or people started to use straight razors again for the obvious use instead of cutting throats). * Maybe they used Incinerate to burn whiskers off?? For 'The Cured' its back to shaving or beards. --- --- --- Rapture Business : A Jazz Club Shown in a 'Better' Part of the City ''' : Not quite as daring as 'Slumming It' at Sinclair Station (the redeveloped Maintenance Track 47) at the Limbo Room (Maybe it was the illicit 'Splicin and Slicin' that was the draw in THAT place ? Heroin after all was the later 'badge' of the Jazz musician ...). Its not really a thing to have in a high-rent district (only one reason being the high rent ...). Big Band/Swing more acceptable to many people in the Population (to make it pay, it couldn't be just having 'Jazz'). Sander Cohen appeared to have been a throwback to the 20s/30s and earlier era styles, but then is shown to embrace alot of 'edgey' (for the 40s/50s) ideas. Perhaps it was the ADAM which inspired this (He would have had his Absinthe from the start, and before while on The Surface). --- --- --- '''There Be Hot Water in Them Thar Hills !! : Some enterprising people went 'prospecting' for exceptional geothermal sites (spots that would offer significant power output, as compared to the large but more average geothermal fields near Hephaestus (Plain of Hades). Such individual 'bonanza' wells when drilled could put out 20X the power of one of Rapture/Hudson Power's standard geothermal wellhead power installations (which there were hundreds of). Many such sites existed far from Rapture 'City Limits'. The local availability of cheap power opened the door for other ventures, as well as allowing many outside communities to have control of their own power supply. 'Insurance' was often taken with a hookup back to Rapture for 'backup' utilities (more than one 'wildcat' well failed or lost much of its capacity). A few remote sites relying on local power which failed would dot the landscape 'out there'. Such 'ghost towns' give a good idea of what Rapture would soon look like if its Power ever failed. Needless to say, Ryan put much effort into making that very unlikely to happen to HIS City. --- --- --- " Hop*Up! Cola (Bottled Since 1949) - Now More CAFFEEN™ Than Ever" ... ''': Uses a Caffeine substitute?? Synthesized Caffeine ? The same company might have also offered a coffee surrogate (you cannot grow coffee beans like you do potatoes - Which actually grew well in Rapture). It predates ADAM, so no whizzbang genetic modified plants as the source (It probably comes from something the customer would really rather not want to know... or maybe just out of a testtube of some scientist/chemist who never 'made it' on The Surface.) --- --- --- '''City Dump - A Business Opportunity : Pauper's Drop was originally supposed (planned by the Devs) to have a Garbage Dump (very third world, with poor people picking over garbage for a living). Of course, by BS2 times, not sure if the garbage transport system would still be much in effect/operational in Rapture (lots of those locked doors we saw probably hide rooms stuffed with fetid garbage by that time -- wait til the sewers/plumbing finally starts backing up). (New Rapture Health Department is gonna be very busy.) In the early days, people dumped refuse and broken equipment outside into the ocean wherever it was convenient. That changed later as more materials were found to be recyclable and some individuals even formed companies to 'mine' the old 'dumped' garbage deposits for profit (example- Sinclair). Rapture's official Garbage Dumps would eventually have done alot of recycling to stretch supplies of useful/hard-to-replace materials (particularly after the surface connections being closed in 1952). Bottle washer was a common job in that era... A utility Tram system transported garbage from chutes/bins in buildings throughout Rapture to several dump sites, where City employees sorted and removed valuable materials. (Yet another New Citizen starter 'City Job' for the Player to experience in the MMORPG). Burnable refuse was recycled sometimes when Rapture had too much Oxygen and the farms needed Carbon Dioxide to continue to grow their crops (AE boxcars full of burnables...). After 'the Fall' and the major population decrease, many of the remaining farmers resorted to gradually burning their agricultural refuse to keep their crops growing (and even salvaging such materials from nearby abandoned farms and stripping wood from Raptures many ruined buildings). --- --- --- A Proper Mall : If you want to see a proper 'Mall' (which Fontaines Dept Store really was), look at the complex I've synthesized on my Amended Olympic Heights Level Map. * Well connected by city transportation * Many small reasonably sized shops/stores * A Central location, accessible * Few overly huge spaces (especially of wastage in public passages) * Modest size within the monolithic building structure * No ridiculously huge structurally impractical windows This would be something originally built in Rapture's early building period. So even if Fontaine chose to 'outdo' it with half the incredible ostentation we are shown in BaSx, he would quickly bankrupt himself by trying. --- --- --- Raptureway Theaters : The Bumquist Theater - Rapture's "Finest Legitimate Playhouse" (adapted from an old sign in a real city) With limited set of venues and talent this may not be a difficult claim to justify. No doubt bored Splicers later put on their own ad-hoc plays (Shakespeare being likely a favorite because of all the witty violence). Illegitimate ? -- Not suitable for Gentlemen, Women and Children (... an old classification) Note - the name 'Raptureway' is trying to emulate "Broadway" but really didn't do a good job as no two theaters were near each other. Perhaps a 'Trolley' like that might possibly link locations of several might call itself "The Raptureway Limited", mimicking the "Broadway Limited" train of the Pennsylvania RR. --- --- --- --- --- . .